Evangeline Lilly
Evangeline Lilly portrayed Hope van Dyne in Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Avengers: Endgame. Significant roles *Kate Austen in Lost (2004-2010) *Simone in The Long Weekend (2005) *Connie James in The Hurt Locker (2008) *Claire in Afterwards (2008) *Bailey Tallet in Real Steel (2011) *Tauriel in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) *Tauriel in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) *Samantha Bloom in Little Evil (2017) Quotes *"Honestly, it's easy for me to talk about it. I've had such a wonderful experience. Marvel Studios has shocked the pants off me. I really expected to be walking into a great big machine that would be so well oiled and anybody new with new ideas or new contributions would just be a pain in the butt. Marvel could not have been more opposite to those expectations. They've been collaborative in a way that makes me feel like — and I know you're going to say this is bullcrap but it's totally true — in a way that makes me feel like I was working on a little indie project. I mean, it was that intimate and that collaborative. I just had a wonderful experience." *"Initially, I was like, no way. No way. And then they said, 'Paul Rudd's playing the lead.' And I was like, 'Oh shit. I love Paul Rudd. I really want to work with him!' So I was like, 'Okay, well, send me the script. I'll read it and I'll consider it.' And then I started watching Marvel movies, which I hadn't done before. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to movies — like, the popcorn-munching movies, I never go see them. I was pleasantly surprised. I thought, these are actually incredible — they're making fantastic films." *"I thought Edgar's idea to blend the stories was brilliant. You're going to have fans up there who insist that you tell the story of Hank Pym, and fans up there who will be more on the Scott Lang side of it. I think we are going to come close to pleasing them all. And what's cool is that, you know, Janet van Dyne is my mom. Hank Pym is my father. I was raised by two superheroes. I'm no schlump. I'm a pretty smart, competent, capable, kick-ass female. She's very cool." *"I thought, Well, if Marvel are big bullies, and they just want a puppet and not someone with a vision, I'm not interested in being in this movie. I finally got the script literally the day before I was supposed to go in for fittings. I said, 'I'm not going to do my fitting until I see the script.' I saw with my own eyes that Marvel had just pulled the script into their world. I mean, they've established a universe, and everyone has come to expect a certain aesthetic, a certain feel for Marvel films. And what Edgar was creating was much more in the Edgar Wright camp of films. They were very different. And I feel like, if Marvel had created Edgar's incredible vision — which would have been, like, classic comic book — it would have been such a riot to film, it would have been so much fun to watch. But it wouldn't have fit in the Marvel Universe. It would have stuck out like a sore thumb, no matter how good it was. It just would have taken you away from this cohesive universe they're trying to create. And therefore it ruins the suspended disbelief that they've built." *"I presumed, when I went into the gig, that I would be sort of a pawn, a cog in the wheel -- I would just be a soldier getting my orders and doing what I had to do because Marvel is such a well established brand that they don't actually have to pander to actors' creative whims. They can do whatever they want, at this point, they're kind of kings of the superhero universe. So for me, I was extremely surprised when I started working and they not only accepted me, but invited my input into the character. They really allowed me to have a hand in shaping Hope van Dyne. Peter Jackson had sort of spoiled me with my experience on ''The Hobbit with that kind of level of collaboration, and then Marvel came along and did it again and gave me that kind of creative leverage and freedom. So I can't speak more highly of my experience with Marvel." *"He was a delight. He actually in some ways reminded me a bit of Peter Jackson. He had a fantastic sense of humor, was extremely immersed in the comic world all his life, is a big fan-boy but also extremely strong in his vision. He knew what he needed, and he knew if we had it or if we didn't have it, and it's such a huge luxury as an actor to know that your director really knows what he wants. He knows when he's got it and he knows when to move on. I feel like we're in really good hands." *"''I've been astounded to discover how good to their teams and crew that Marvel are. They're so collaborative, so smart with their stories. They have rich, dynamic characters which are so much fun to play. I expected I'd be a cog in the wheel of a big machine — I wasn't sure I'd like this experience. But I've been so astounded at how pleasurable the whole experience has been." *"She is the daughter of the founders of The Avengers, Ant-Man and the Wasp. She is a very talented, intelligent, capable woman and a force to be reckoned with." *"The movie is very much a heist film. It has all the fun, tension and drama of a good heist film. The heist is being masterminded by myself, my father and Scott Lang." *"On ''Ant-Man, I took a rubber stamp from the office of Hank Pym, who's played by Michael Douglas. If something is small enough to go in my pocket and it will be neat memorabilia, it's gone." *"''When I first signed on, It didn't really occur to me how monumental or what a big deal that was. I just thought 'Oh great, Michael? Paul? Wonderful; great cast'. I'm very clinical about deciding what roles I'll take, so I've sort of been checking boxes, and Michael became a box I checked. I thought 'Okay great, they've cast that one well...moving on' and I carried on with my process of checks and balances. And then I got to work and started working with him, and then about halfway through shooting, I had to do this very intense emotional with Michael Douglas. And it wasn't until midway through shooting this scene with him that suddenly the penny dropped and it occurred to me 'Oh my God, I'm acting opposite Michael Douglas; this is a legendary star'. He's a consummate actor, and it hit me. The reason it hit me was because I had been working with him for long enough to have suddenly kind of realize 'Oh my God, he's such a force every time he shows up on set. Every time they call action, what he brings into the room makes the room electric; it brings everything to life. And I realized I was standing before and had the privilege to be working with a living legend." *"I was raised by two superheroes. So, I'm a pretty screwed up human being. I am also fairly capable, strong, and kick-ass, which is wonderful to play, but the most fun to play was just how messed up she was from being raised by two superheroes. And the clear message sent by name is that I'm not a big fan of my father and so I took my mother's name." *"When we begin the film, Janet van Dyne is not alive. She's lost her mother, that marks the character in a way that affects everything she does. Her mother has become a figure in her mind more than a human being, and I think that she has always suffered from that loss and not having that presence, that female figure in her life." *"I am still trying to figure out how to get my hands on original 'Ant-Man' comics, where you get them. I've been given a couple recent 'Ant-Man' comics. No offense Marvel, but they are total crap. I really want to read the original ones, because I got through two and I was like, dude, you can't force-feed me another one of these magazines. It was terrible. But Janet's not in them, and neither is Hank and neither is Scott. It's just a completely different fabrication. So if anybody has any old 'Ant-Man' comics they want to lend me." *"Hope and her father don't get along very well, and haven't for many, many years — kind of for most of her life. They've been sort of thrust together because of circumstances right now, but it doesn't mean that they like it. It doesn't mean that she likes it." *"I'm only in three pages of the script, so I don't really know what he's talking about. laughter I'm lucky enough to have gotten involved with the film when they were still rewriting it from the original Edgar Wright draft. I met with Paul Rudd in New York City before they really came out with the official new draft. I got a chance to sort of say, 'Hey, why don't you beef up my character and give her a really full arc?' I think one of the things that is easy to have happened in a superhero story is that the female character, whether she be a heroine or not, can often be the wart on the man. She's just his accompaniment, she's just there when he's there, and there's no real arc or story for her." *"When we begin the film, Janet van Dyne is not alive. She's lost her mother. That marks the character in a way that affects everything she does. Her mother has become a figure in her mind more than a human being, and I think that she has always suffered from that loss and not having that presence, that female figure in her life." *"I am still trying to figure out how to get my hands on original ''Ant-Man comics, where you get them. I've been given a couple recent Ant-Man comics. No offense Marvel, but they are total crap. I really want to read the original ones, because I got through two and I was like, dude, you can't force-feed me another one of these magazines. It was terrible. But Janet's not in them, and neither is Hank and neither is Scott. It's just a completely different fabrication. So if anybody has any old 'Ant-Man' comics they want to lend me." *"''Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne were the founding members of the Avengers. They created the name, they got the people together; that was their baby." *"The truth is there's so much going on in ''Civil War. Wasp is such a huge character, and Hope is such a big part of Ant-Man, her character journey is such a big part of that movie. We thought it would be a disservice to the Wasp to just have her show up — 'Hello, I'm wearing the costume now! Goodbye!' — because there's too much else going on in that movie." *"She was included in early versions of Civil War but there are so many characters in Civil War that we didn't want to do her a disservice, like she flies in, 'I've got the costume now', and she flies out. With Ant-Man, and I'm not saying that's what Ant-Man does in the movie, but we already know him, we've already seen him. We haven't seen her as Wasp and we don't want to rob the opportunity of seeing her in the outfit for at least almost the first time, and seeing her dynamic with Scott in a way it could play out, so we're saving it. It's going to be Phase 3 for sure." *"...I've seen that moment in the movie where the door goes up and reveals that Wasp suit 15 thousand times now, and I get chills every single time because it is so cool. Part of it is because you've been with her frustration, her 'It's about damn time.' When we do it, which we're going to, it needs to be done really well." *"''I don't really know. There are only so many slots, which people don't like when I say that, but it's just the facts of how many weekends are in a year and also how many productions we can do and maintain the level of quality that we want to maintain. We're keeping to basically the plan that was announced last October, with the addition of ''Spider-Man in there. I don't really know where it could fit in sooner than that. But if there's an overwhelming reason to find a place, we'll look." *"''Marvel hasn't told me, but I kind of, again, fabricating my own. I think that she could be alive and that it could be a great. I mean, I would love to see a storyline where Hope somehow, I don't know, tries to find her mom or meets her or something happens where there's some amazing reunion. I think that would be super cool, and I have my dream casting already, for my mom." *"It's got to be Michelle Pfeiffer. That was my favorite of all time of all the comic book female characters, but Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman. Not just anybody or anything, not even like in the comic books, Michelle Pfeiffer." *"I do not know anything about ''Ant-Man and Wasp. Marvel didn't tell me anything, but wouldn't it be cool if Hope was behind her mother and if she was played by Michelle Pfeifer?" *"''I'm excited because its essentially going to be the origin of the Wasp. Of course, we're going to see the Wasp for the first time take on the mantle, and put on the suit, and fly about, and do her thing. Following that one, there's an Avengers series coming out, I believe its a two-parter, and the Wasp won't be in the first part, she'll be in the second part because they want to preserve that reveal for ''Ant-Man and the Wasp." *"''Then Edgar Wright called me. The only Marvel film I’d seen at that time was ''Iron Man, and I didn’t even know it was a Marvel film. So I was like, I don’t want to do a stupid superhero movie. And Paul Rudd, which makes it even cooler. Who casts Paul Rudd as a superhero? Nobody. So I was like, I gotta check out these Marvel guys and see what they’re up to, and apparently, they were up to really cool shit." *"''How have I missed these guys who are making really cool superheroes who don’t take themselves too seriously. A year from now I get to put on a wasp costume and buzz around." Category:Marvel Cinematic Universe cast Category:Ant-Man cast Category:Avengers cast